Thumbs up, thumbs down

Politics, night shift and cool images.

Houstonians celebrate at the CITGO Freedom Over Texas Independence Day celebration along the Buffalo Bayou. (Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle)

Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer

It's not exactly relaxing, poolside reading, but New Yorker staffer Lawrence Wright makes a 20,000-word case that Texas' political system is broken in the magazine's current edition (and for free on its website). If you're going to read it - and you should - get a six-pack. "Texas is a behemoth and it has an outsize influence on the direction of America and we have a responsibility … as Texans to make sure that we take care of our state in a way that would enable us to be the proper custodians of the future of America," Wright told the Texas Standard radio program.

It's also worth firing up the laptop and surfing over to psmag.com (PacificStandard) for the photography of celebrated American photojournalist Alex Webb. Tasked with capturing the diversity of Houston, he answers the assignment with vivid images of everything from a Bandladeshi wedding to Mardi Gras in Galveston to a quinceañera dress on an East End street. Not only will his images inspire you to make better use of that mobile camera, it will open your eyes to the multicultural wonder that is us.

Finally a police chief in Houston understands that crime doesn't sleep and not much good happens after 3 a.m. Art Acevedo has launched a new task force - called Squad 13. Job No. 1: Take down crime committed with guns. What these officers need more than anything are courageous legislators - in both Austin and Washington - helping with laws that make access to cop-killing weapons impossible.

Speaking of guns, the Houston Symphony used audio-taped cannons instead of the real things when performing the 1812 Overture at Tuesday's Fourth of July concert in Hermann Park. The decision to "blast-sync" was made last year when "the live blast made a few concertgoers feel distressed over fears of safety." In a state where the governor has approved feral pig hunting from hot air balloons and every kind of carry - concealed, campus, etc. - we would soon expect a bill demanding real cannon fire at concerts.

When Rick Perry becomes the big yell leader in the sky, we may have to shut this column down. Our material will dry up like a Hill Country lake in the drought. This week's faux pas happened in Morgantown, W. Va. The Secretary of Energy showed that he didn't ace Econ 101. "Here's a little economics lesson: supply and demand. You put the supply out there and the demand will follow," Perry said. Social media exploded. "John Maynard Keynes just woke up, got out of his grave, and then died again," wrote a New York Times reporter. "That's not how it worked with my last book," wrote an LSU professor.